1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a paper metering device, and, more particularly to a device for receiving an inflow of irregularly clumped paper items and for discharging the paper items as an even and manageable outflow.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is sometimes desired to process large quantities of unwanted paper sheet material for disposal or recycling. Common examples are the processing of newspapers, computer printouts, or file stock. The paper is often shredded as a first step in the recycling process. The waste paper is frequently delivered to the processing site randomly thrown into bins or in large stacks, clumps or bundles. It order to feed the waste paper into a shredder or other processing equipment, it is necessary to meter the paper out as a relatively uniform flow of manageable volume.
As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,236,355, it is known to meter a flow of mail by means of an inclined conveyor provided with a declumping roller at the top, outflow end of the conveyor. The declumping roller has a series of disks rotating on a shaft extending across the upper end of the conveyor. Pieces of mail are randomly fed into the lower, infeed end of the conveyor and are carried up to the upper end. The declumping roller, which is normally continuously rotating, is carried on a pivoting frame such that when overly tall articles or clumps of articles of mail reach the roller, the roller peels off the uppermost articles of mail and propels them forward. If even more excessively tall clumps or articles reach the roller, the roller is raised upward, triggering a switch which stops the conveyor until the height of the clump is reduced. Still taller clumps or articles stop both the conveyor and the declumping rollers for manual intervention by the operator.
The device of U.S. Pat. No. 3,236,355 is intended for use with relative small, discrete and manageable articles of mail. This device is inadequate for metering out bulky and unmanageable inflows of paper sheet articles such as newspapers and fan-folded computer printouts. Thus, there is an unmet need for a device capable of metering out such paper articles.